“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

Let the games of “mind manipulation” begin! In Genesis 3, humankind was introduced to Satan and his wicked schemes. There are at least two identifiable techniques Satan uses to manipulate Adam and Eve that were discussed in the previous chapter: Appeal to Human Authority and Appeal to Tricky Implication (Philip, 014, pp.4-5).

Satan a stranger posed as a snake, a familiar beast to Adam and Eve to initiate this premeditated-manipulative game of destruction on God’s latest creation. Satan knew the rules of the garden and the commandment given by God to Adam. His goal was purely to destroy the relationship between man and God, through separation, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God…” (Isaiah 59:2).

In the duplicity of Satan’s scheme, he pretended to have heard a rumor of some sort that seemed almost unbelievable to his ears, by asking Eve, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (v. 1). Eve immediately corrected the serpent of this misinformation in saying, “We may eat the fruit of the garden; but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die’” (vv. 2-3). The serpent contradicted God’s Word by using the Appeal to Tricky Implication technique by responding with “You will not surely die. For God knows that

in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (vv. 4-5): it is this very statement the serpent uses the Appeal to Human Authority technique, in convincing Eve that she would be just like God, if she would eat the produce.

In using both techniques, Satan made God appear to be not only a liar but also a cheater to Adam and Eve with an ulterior motive. Satan does the same thing today. He contorts the Word of God in such a way that it creates doubt: “Satan’s opposition to the Bible accounts for our having so many false theories of the Word of God. Any theory that teaches that God does not mean what He says and adds to, misinterprets, take from, or changes in any form what it plainly says is satanic” (Dake, 2001, pp.155-156).

The second thing Satan did was to generate doubt in the minds of Adam and Eve, forming distrust in their hearts. For certain, the two must have pondered on the reason why they should or should not eat of the tree. Regardless of what God commanded of them, once doubt set into their thoughts–so did Satan. This is evident in verse 6 where “…the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” The Bible instructs us not to love the world or the things in the world in 1st John 2:15-17. Adam and Eve fell into the trap of the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” found in verse 16: “…the woman saw that the tree was good for food,” the lust of the flesh “that it was pleasant to the eyes,” the lust of the eyes “and a tree desirable to make one wise,” the pride of life. Satan’s deceit appealed to Adam and Eve’s unfamiliar flesh, causing this unusual desire to have that which they did

not need “ the knowledge of evil.” Adam and Eve already knew good because they were obedient up until the “forbidden fruit” incident and they were already created in the image of God, according to Genesis 1:27.

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